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May 1, 2023

🥛 2 things to watch in May 👀

GM. This is Milk Road, the crypto newsletter that’s as valuable as your grandma's secret recipe book.

Here's what we got for you today:

  • 2 things to keep an eye on this month 👀

  • Crypto adoption just got easier 🙏

  • "ETH is not a security" – Gary Gensler, 2018 🎙️

  • Bitcoin breaks a new record 🍪

Prices as of 9:30 AM ET

Today's edition is brought to you by Venom, a new layer-1 blockchain whose testnet is live and seeing major adoption.

THINGS TO KEEP AN EYE ON THIS MONTH 👀

Ladies and gents, it’s officially May. And there are 2 big things we’re keeping our eyes on this month…

1/ BANK FAILURES

Big banks have been collapsing left and right. And just in case you’ve lost count at home, over the last two months we’ve seen… *checks notes*

❌Silvergate Bank collapse

❌Signature Bank collapse

❌Silicon Valley Bank collapse

❌First Republic Bank collapse

❌Credit Suisse collapse (the 2nd largest bank in Switzerland)

Banks are falling down like they just finished an F45 training class with Mark Wahlberg.

And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse…

Cross River Bank is in trouble now too. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) sent a consent order to Cross River Bank alleging the bank engaged in “unsafe and unsound” lending practices.

The FDIC has requested the crypto-friendly bank “self-correct and appropriately address” the issues. AKA Cross River Bank got the Check-Yourself-Before-You-Wreck-Yourself notice.

Why this matters: Cross River is one of the last big crypto banks standing.

It works with some of the biggest crypto players like Coinbase (the largest U.S. crypto exchange) and Circle (the issuer of USDC – the second largest stablecoin).

So if Cross River goes down, it could be trouble…

We’ll be keeping a close eye on Cross River and other banks over the next month to see what happens. But so far, we’ve seen banks' pain turn into gains for…

2/ BITCOIN’S PRICE

Since the Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and Silvergate Bank collapses happened, Bitcoin is +30%.

The cherry on top? Bitcoin has been in the green for 4 straight months. The last time this happened was back in 2019. Can I get a hell yeah?!

We'll have to wait and see if Bitcoin can keep the streak alive in May though…

(Not-So-Fun-Fact: According to CoinGlass, May has been the worst-performing month for BTC over the last two years with an average monthly return of -21%.) 

We can't predict the future of what's gonna happen with the banks and Bitcoin's price, but here are 2 big events that could make or break it:

  • May 3: the Fed announces interest rates hikes

  • May 10: CPI data released (AKA we see how much it costs just to breathe)

It's all in the hands of Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve. *gulp*

All we can hope for is that the April showers bring May flowers.

JOIN THE LAYER 1 TESTNET SEEING HUGE ADOPTION WITH VENOM

There’s a new blockchain in town. And it’s already making a big splash in the space.

Introducing our partner, Venom. Their testnet just went live 6 days ago, and it has already seen 190,000+ unique wallets participate. The team designed a series of social and on-chain tasks that provide users with a taste of what the blockchain will have to offer.

We encourage you to take part in the Venom Testnet by:

The Testnet has additionally enabled developers to start building on Venom, and their first Hackathon with a prize pool of $225,000 launches on May 8 (more details to come in a few days).

Here are some cool facts about Venom:

  • It’s the first blockchain foundation to be licensed and operate out of the ADGM (Abu Dhabi Global Market).

  • Experienced team including the Ex CIO of Blackrock, and others from both Apple and Huawei.

  • Has committed $1 Billion to the launch of the Venom Ventures Fund, a fund actively investing in web3 projects and startups.

Venom is bringing a breath of fresh air to the layer 1 blockchain scene, with new users and developers receiving a warm welcome to their next-gen ecosystem.

Set up your Venom wallet and start testing Dapps in their ecosystem today!

SET UP YOUR VENOM WALLET TODAY!

3 BIG MOVES TO MAKE CRYPTO ONBOARDING EASIER 🙏

There's a lot of cool sh*t being built in crypto every day. Stuff like new decentralized apps, protocols, NFTs, and more.

But there's a big problem: Crypto onboarding is hard. New users have to try products they've never used, made by companies they've never heard of.

Which is why bridging new users into crypto looks something like this…

But there were 3 big moves made over the last week that could make onboarding easier:

The Milk Road Take: My mom might not know what MetaMask is or how to use it, but she sure knows Mastercard, VISA, and (recently) Venmo and uses all 3 every day.

The more big players that join crypto to make the onboarding easier, the better.

Big W for future crypto adoption.

"ETH IS NOT A SECURITY" – GARY GENSLER, 2018🎙️

All eyes have been on Gary Gensler. You might know him as the Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Slayer of Exchanges. President of the Crypto Haters Club.

But what you might not know is that ol' Gary G used to be a professor at MIT. And recently, a Twitter user (@ZK_shark) took a trip down memory land and found a clip of Gary teaching back in 2018.

The course was called Blockchain and Money. And although Gary is singing about how bad crypto is today, he was like T-Pain on autotune singing a whole different song 5 years ago…

Here are some of our favorite lyrics:

  • "The Securities and Exchange Commission has said regardless of what it might have been in 2014, [ETH] is now sufficiently decentralized that we’ll consider it not a security."

  • "So we already know in the US and in many other jurisdictions that 3/4 of the market are not ICOs or NOT what would be called securities. 3/4 of the market is non-securities. It's just a commodity, a cash crypto."

Crazy, I know. The same guy that is coming after crypto claiming most are securities was once teaching his students that 3/4 of the market (including ETH) isn't a security…

The teacher has turned into the attacker.

MILK & COOKIES 🍪

Bitcoin processed 568K+ transactions on Sunday, a new daily record. Bitcoin is like LeBron James – still breaking records 14 years in.

Google Cloud is launching a new Web3 startup program. Companies that get accepted will get access to funding and additional support from other crypto partners like Solana, Flow, Near, and more.

Adidas and Pharrell release digital clothes for Doodles NFT holders. The "Pharrell Pack" comes with digital wearables and a token that can be redeemed for physical clothes.

MILKY MEMES 🤣

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DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.